The Weather Forecasting Forum

Hi all, im using the freeware version of Wxtoimg however i am having some problems receiving the satellite data. I am using a radioshack Pro-95 airband scanner with a discone hooked up to my pc. I was using the scanner with an normal airband antenna but after recieving no results, i switched to the discone. When I switched to the discone, I got a lot of 'noise' in the picture but no real image just noise.

My question is, Can I still utilize my discone antenna for recieving satellite data or would I have to purchase a specialised weather antenna?!

If anyone has any info or can help me it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Arman

Hello

Both the receiver and the antenna are not ideal for receiving weather satellites. I don't know the specs of the receiver but in general the bandwith of a scanner is too small for weather satellites. But at least with your equipment you must receive images, despite the quality. You don't wrote if you received a signal. If not there are other problems. If you write if you receive a signal I can give more specific help.

Greetings

Fred

Hi there, thanks for the reply. I understand that both the scanner and the antenna aren't ideal however at elast I am getting something. I tried to recieve a satellite again however, this time I increased the volume and set the squelch on the reciever so that it just cut off the 'hissing' noise. The picture I got was of a much better quality, there was no actual image itself but the noise was less and there seemed to be a sort of blurred image recieved. Whatever I recieved, it was much better than before.

I think that setting the volume and/or the squelch may be able to improve my reception and I was just wondering if anybody knows how I should configure my squelch/volume settings for optimum reception.

Again if anyone can help I would be most grateful,

Arman

The volume must be so loud that in Wxtoimg you see a value of about 75. Turn the squelch off during reception.

At the moment NOAA-15 is not working. Which satellite did you try to receive? Did you used the Satellite pass list from Wxtoimg? Did you used the most recent Keplers?

Can you sent me the image you received? Then I can see how it looks and give you advice to improve. I will send my email-address off-list.

Greetings

Fred

Hi Fred, thanks again for the reply. Yeah I read in the help section that the volume has to be between 50 -75 and I turned the volume on my pc to the max and on my reciever to the max but I'm still getting a volume readout of 44?! I don't know why this is! I've tried to recieve NOAA 12, 15 and 17. I also used the latest keplers and the satellite pass list from Wxtoimg.

Thanks for the email address, I'll send you the pictures I recieved. Thanks again for all the help, it is most appreciated!!

Arman